Coupe aux fleurons, Iznik, régne de Murad III (1574-1595), vers 1580-1590, céramique siliceuse. H : 9 cm. D: 37,5 cm. Anc.coll.Salzmann, Acq. Musée de Cluny, 1865. Ecouen, musée national de la Renaissance, E.Cl.9305. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée de la Renaissance, château d'Ecouen) / René-Gabriel Ojéda

Tondino à décor de médaillons en réserve, Iznik, période ottomane (13e siècle-1922), 1535-1545, céramique siliceuse. D: 26,5 cm. Anc.coll.Salzmann, Acq. Musée de Cluny, 1865. Ecouen, musée national de la Renaissance, E.Cl.7712. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée de la Renaissance, château d'Ecouen) / René-Gabriel Ojéda

Grand plat au marli festonné, Iznik, période ottomane (13e siècle-1922), vers 1575, céramique siliceuse. H: 5,5 cm. D: 32 cm. Anc.coll.Salzmann, Acq. Musée de Cluny, 1865. Ecouen, musée national de la Renaissance, E.Cl.8326. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée de la Renaissance, château d'Ecouen) / René-Gabriel Ojéda

Tondino aux tulipes et rosettes, Iznik, période ottomane (13e siècle-1922), vers 1535-1545, céramique siliceuse. D: 26,5 cm. Anc.coll.Salzmann, Acq. Musée de Cluny, 1865. Ecouen, musée national de la Renaissance, E.Cl.7711. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée de la Renaissance, château d'Ecouen) / René-Gabriel Ojéda

Compotier à décor sinisant, Iznik, période ottomane (13e siècle-1922), vers 1570, céramique siliceuse. H. 12 cm. D: 34,5 cm. Anc.coll.Salzmann, Acq. Musée de Cluny, 1865. Ecouen, musée national de la Renaissance, E.Cl.9302. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée de la Renaissance, château d'Ecouen) / René-Gabriel Ojéda

Grand plat à fond bleu cobalt, Iznik, période ottomane (13e siècle-1922), vers 1540, céramique siliceuse. D: 36 cm. Anc.coll.Salzmann, Acq. Musée de Cluny, 1865. Ecouen, musée national de la Renaissance, E.Cl.9304. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais (musée de la Renaissance, château d'Ecouen) / René-Gabriel Ojéda

« Art History in Contemporary Life » by Alexey Kondakov

The Alfred Jewel. Gold, enamel and rock crystal, 6.2 x 3.1 x 1.3 cm. Anglo-Saxon, late 9th century. © Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford.

OXFORD.- The Ashmolean Museum has raised the £1.35 million required to purchase the hoard of King Alfred the Great discovered in Watlington, Oxfordshire, in 2015. More than 700 members of the public contributed to the appeal. Lead support was provided by the National Lottery through a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) grant of £1.05 million to acquire the hoard and fund a range of educational and outreach activities. With a further £150,000 from Art Fund and contributions from private individuals and the Friends and Patrons of the Ashmolean, the Museum reached its fundraising target within days of the deadline. 

Dr Xa Sturgis, Director of the Ashmolean, says: ‘The Watlington Hoard is one of the most exciting and important acquisitions we have ever made, particularly significant because it was found in Oxfordshire. To be able to keep the hoard in the county and put it on display with the Ashmolean’s Anglo-Saxon collections, which include the world-famous Alfred Jewel, was an opportunity we could not miss. I am therefore profoundly grateful to the Heritage Lottery Fund and National Lottery players; to Art Fund; to our Friends and Patrons; and to the members of the public and the people of Oxfordshire who have been so generous in their support.’ 

Once formally acquired, the Museum will launch an HLF funded events and education programme for the hoard. This will begin on 11 February when the treasures will be put on display at the Oxfordshire Museum, Woodstock (until 19 March). In collaboration with Oxfordshire Museums Service, the Ashmolean will stage roadshow events around the county which will include talks, object handling sessions and displays of the objects at locations including Bicester, Faringdon and of course in Watlington. The hoard will also be the focus at the Ashmolean’s annual Festival of Archaeology which takes place every year in July. 

Two Emperor’s Coin. Photo Credit Portable Antiques Scheme.

Stuart McLeod, Head of HLF South East, says: ‘This is fantastic news for the Ashmolean and its visitors. Thanks to the fundraising campaign and the £1.05 million provided by National Lottery players, this hugely significant hoard will be available for future generations to admire, learn from and explore.’ 

The Watlington hoard was discovered on private land by metal-dectorist James Mather on 7 October 2015. On the verge of giving up after a frustrating day of finding nothing more than ring-pulls and shotgun cartridges, James chanced upon an object he recognised to be a Viking-age ingot. On finding a further cache of silver pennies close-by he realised he had discovered a hoard. In the days following, James, the landowner and archaeologist David Williams of the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, explored the site and then block-lifted the hoard out of the soil so that it could be taken to the British Museum to be excavated under laboratory conditions. Here it was x-rayed to reveal the contents and the arrangement of the objects within the soil. 

Comprising about 200 coins (some of them fragmentary), seven items of jewellery and fifteen ingots (bars of silver), the find is not particularly large, but it is hugely significant because it contains so many coins of Alfred the Great, king of Wessex (r.871–99) and his less well known contemporary, Ceolwulf II of Mercia (r.874–c.879). The vanishingly rare ‘Two Emperors’ penny, of which the hoard contains thirteen examples, shows these two kings seated side-by-side below a winged figure of Victory or an angel. Prior to the discovery of the hoard, only two other examples of the ‘Two Emperors’ were known. The image on the coins suggests an alliance between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia. This, remarkably, challenges the accounts found in written sources which dismissed Ceolwulf as a puppet of the Vikings. The coins can therefore offer new insights into this tumultuous period of England’s history and allow us to speculate on Ceolwulf’s disappearance and what role Alfred might have played in his rival’s demise.

King Alfred’s Coins. Photo Credit: Trustees of the British Museum.

King Alfred’s Coins. Photo Credit: Trustees of the British Museum.

Eleanor Standley, Curator of the Ashmolean’s Anglo-Saxon and Medieval Collections, James Mather, who discovered the Watlington Hoard, and John Naylor, the Ashmolean's Medieval and Post-Medieval Portable Antiquities Scheme Finds Adviser.

Rosary, German, ca. 1500–1525. Ivory, silver, and partially gilded mounts. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917, 17.190.306. © 2000–2017 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Overall: 24 11/16 x 2 1/8 x 1 3/4 in. (62.7 x 5.4 x 4.5 cm) Top Terminal: 1 5/8 x 1 5/16 x 1 1/2 in. (4.2 x 3.4 x 3.8 cm) 2nd bead: 2 1/16 x 1 11/16 x 1 in. (5.2 x 4.3 x 2.6 cm) 3rd bead: 2 3/16 x 1 7/8 x 11/16 in. (5.6 x 4.7 x 1.7 cm) 4th bead: 2 5/16 x 1 15/16 x 1 in. (5.8 x 4.9 x 2.6 cm) 5th bead: 2 9/16 x 2 x 1 1/16 in. (6.5 x 5.1 x 2.7 cm) 6th bead: 2 1/2 x 1 13/16 x 7/8 in. (6.3 x 4.6 x 2.2 cm) 7th bead: 2 3/4 x 2 1/8 x 1 in. (7 x 5.4 x 2.5 cm) Bottom Terminal: 2 1/16 x 1 7/16 x 1 15/16 in. (5.2 x 3.6 x 5 cm)

Rendered in virtuoso detail, these rosary beads juxtapose images of life and death. The inscriptions on two beads of the ivory chain combine to say, "Remember death/This is what you will be." The boxwood bead opens to reveal Death appearing unannounced at a meal beneath an image of the Last Judgment in the upper hemisphere. The Latin inscription reads, "Stay awake, for you do not know at which hour your Lord will come" (Matthew 24:42).

RosaryTerminal Bead with Lovers and Death's Head, North French or South Netherlandish, ca. 1500–1525. Ivory, with emerald pendant, silver-gilt mount. Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917, 17.190.305. © 2000–2017 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Overall: 5 3/8 x 1 9/16 x 1 11/16 in. (13.6 x 4 x 4.3 cm) ivory only: 2 13/16 x 1 9/16 x 1 11/16 in. (7.2 x 4 x 4.3 cm)

A string of beads is used as a memory aid in the recitation of the rosary, a multipart devotion to the Virgin. Here, the striking terminal bead announces the constant proximity of death by joining a skull to the pair of vivacious lovers. Such an image is known as a memento mori (reminder of death), as it encourages one to reflect on the transience of life.

François Boucher (French, 1703-1770), The Triumph of Venus, 1740 (detail), oil on canvas. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum.

 NEW YORK, NY.- The Nationalmuseum, Sweden’s largest and most distinguished art institution, is collaborating with the Morgan Library & Museum to bring more than seventy-five masterpieces from its renowned collections to New York in an extraordinary new exhibition opening February 3. The show features work by artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt van Rijn, Antoine Watteau, and François Boucher, and is the first collaboration between the two institutions in almost fifty years. Treasures from the Nationalmuseum of Sweden: The Collections of Count Tessin runs through May 14. 

The Nationalmuseum’s core holdings were assembled by Count Carl Gustaf Tessin (1696–1770), a diplomat and one of the great art collectors of his day. The son and grandson of architects, Tessin held posts in Vienna, Berlin, and Paris, where he came into contact with the leading Parisian artists of the time and commissioned many works from them. By the time he left the city in 1742, he amassed an impressive collection of paintings and drawings. 

François Boucher (French, 1703–1770), The Triumph of Venus, 1740, oil on canvas. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser /Nationalmuseum

Among the fourteen paintings in the exhibition are three commissioned by Count Tessin and exhibited at the 1740 Parisian Salon. Chief among these is Boucher’s Triumph of Venus, which is making its first journey to North America. Other paintings include Jean-Baptiste Oudry’s Dachshund Pehr with Dead Game and Rifle, and a Portrait of Count Tessin by Jacques-André-Joseph Aved, in which the collector is shown among his art, books, and medals. Six works by Jean-Siméon Chardin, notably the Morning Toilette, complete the group.  

The drawings in the exhibition include works by Italian masters such as Domenico Ghirlandaio, Raphael, Giulio Romano, and Annibale Carracci. Northern European artists are represented by Dürer, Hendrick Goltzius, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, and Anthony van Dyck, among others. The French drawings begin with Primaticcio and practitioners of the Fontainebleau school and include works by Jacques Callot and Nicholas Poussin, as well as Count Tessin’s French contemporaries, Watteau, Boucher, and Chardin. 

Jean Siméon Chardin (French, 1699-1779), The Sedan Chair (La vinaigrette), 1722, black chalk, heightened with white, on brownish gray paper. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

“We are delighted to host this exhibition of masterworks from the Nationalmuseum,” said Colin B. Bailey, director of the Morgan Library & Museum. “The selection of paintings and drawings is of the highest quality. Fine examples of work from the Italian, French, and Northern European schools are represented, with a group of sixty master drawings forming the heart of the show. We are deeply grateful to the museum’s director general Berndt Arell and his curatorial staff for making this collaboration possible. 

“The exhibition continues a tradition at the Morgan of partnering with Europe’s leading cultural institutions. Over the last several years, the museum has mounted critically acclaimed shows from the Uffizi in Florence, the Louvre, the Staatliche Graphische Sammlung in Munich, and the Biblioteca Reale in Turin.” 

Hendrick Goltzius (Netherlandish, 1558–1617), Self-Portrait, ca. 1590–91, black, red, and white chalk, with watercolors. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

essin Collects 
Carl Gustaf Tessin is distinguished among his Swedish contemporaries by his extraordinary versatility: he was a politician, courtier, diplomat, public official, artist, writer, historian, collector, and philosopher. Son of the architect Nicodemus Tessin the Younger, Carl Gustaf was an amateur of the arts from a young age, an enthusiasm fostered by his early travels through Europe, including a first visit to Paris in 1715–16, a brief return in 1718–19, and another trip with his new wife Ulla in 1728–29. Following his father’s death in 1728, Carl Gustaf inherited a substantial collection of paintings, drawings, and prints and the position of surintendant (surveyor) at the royal palace. 

Tessin’s longest stay in Paris was from 1739 until 1742, when he served as Sweden’s unofficial ambassador to the French court. Driven by a passion for art and elegant living, he commissioned and purchased paintings and drawings, assembling a notable collection. The costs of maintaining his lifestyle in Paris would, however, leave him with lasting financial difficulty after his return to Stockholm. 

Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669), Study for the Figure of Esther in The Great Jewish Bride, 1635, pen and gray-brown and dark brown  ink, brown and gray wash, on beige paper. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Tessin Sells His Collections to the Royal Family 
Tessin was forced in 1749 to sell part of his collection of paintings to the royal family of Sweden as his financial situation deteriorated. He sold 243 paintings to King Frederick I, who then presented them to his daughter-in-law, Crown Princess Louisa Ulrika, who considered Tessin a confidant. The following year, in 1750, Tessin was compelled to sell the majority of his drawings to Louisa Ulrika’s husband, who had succeeded his father as King Adolf Frederick. This series of sales to the royal family helped form the core of the royal collection of old master drawings and paintings. Most of the collection was kept in the Royal Palace, Stockholm, which Tessin’s father designed. Some paintings were kept at nearby Drottningholm Palace, Louisa Ulrika’s favored retreat, also designed by Tessin’s father.  

Jacques-André-Joseph Aved (French, 1702–1766), Portrait of Count Carl Gustaf Tessin, 1740, oil on canvas. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Gustav III and the Founding of the Nationalmuseum 
Adolf Frederick died in 1771 and was succeeded by his son, King Gustav III, who had been tutored by Tessin, and who was an acclaimed patron of the arts. Gustav’s ambition was to establish a royal collection open to the public. In 1775, he created the Royal Library, which served as a repository for the king’s collection of drawings. After Gustav’s assassination in 1792, a Royal Museum—primarily a collection of paintings and sculpture—was founded in his memory. These two collections would eventually form the core of the Nationalmuseum’s holdings. In the 1860s, works were inventoried and transferred to the museum: the drawings in 1863, followed by the paintings in 1865. The Nationalmuseum opened its doors in 1866.  

Jean Siméon Chardin (French, 1699–1779), The Morning Toilette, 1740–41, oil on canvas. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

The Nationalmuseum Today 
Today, the Nationalmuseum houses a wide-ranging collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture, decorative arts, and design, but is renowned for its strength in old master paintings and drawings, especially those of the eighteenth century, largely thanks to Count Tessin. Closed for renovation since 2013, the museum will reopen in 2018 with state-of-the-art climate control throughout its historic 1866 building and expanded space to display more of its collection, offering museumgoers a broader and richer experience.

Jean-Baptiste Oudry (French, 1686–1755), The Dachshund Pehr with Dead Game and Rifle, 1740, oil on canvas. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, Dutch, 1606–1669), Three Thatched Cottages by a Road, ca. 1640, pen and brown ink and wash, with touches of white heightening. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser/Nationalmuseum

François Boucher (French, 1703-1770), The Milliner, 1746, oil on canvas. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Jean Siméon Chardin (French, 1699–1779), Young Student Drawing, 1733–35, oil on oak. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Raphael (Raffaello Santi, Italian, 1483–1520), Adoration of the Infant Christ, ca. 1503–4, pen and brown ink, incised for transfer. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Giulio Pippi, called GiulioRomano (Italian, ca. 1499–1546), Apollo and Cyparissus, ca. 1525–30, pen and brown ink and brown wash. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

François Boucher (French, 1703-1770), Study of a Hen, ca. 1727/28, black, red and white chalk on light brown paper. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528), Portrait of a Young Woman with Braided Hair, 1515, black chalk and charcoal. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Francesco Primaticcio (Italian, 1504–1570), The Daughters of Minyas, ca. 1540-45, pen and red ink and wash, heightened with white, on pink prepared paper. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Attributed to Anthony van Dyck, after Peter Paul Rubens (Flemish, 1599–1641), Portrait of the Jesuit Nicolas Trigault (1577–1628) in Chinese Costume, 1617, black and white chalk, with touches of ocher and red chalk, and blue-green fabricated chalk, on gray paper. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Annibale Carracci (Italian, 1560–1609), Nude Study of a Young Man Lying on his Back, ca. 1583-85, red chalk. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Domenico Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1488/89–1494), Head of an Old Man, ca. 1490, silverpoint with white heightening on pink prepared paper. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Antoine Watteau (French, 1684–1721), Four Studies of a Young Woman’s Head, ca. 1720, red, black, and white chalk. Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Photo: Cecilia Heisser / Nationalmuseum

Fountain Figure of a Centaurwith a Boar, First half of first century CE. White marble with blue veins. From Villa A, rooms 31, 21, 44, peristyle 32, portico 33.

NORTHAMPTON, MASS.- The Smith College Museum of Art announces that it will host the travelling exhibition, Leisure & Luxury in the Age of Nero: The Villas of Oplontis near Pompeii from February 3 through August 13, 2017. 

Featuring works seen for the first time outside Italy, this groundbreaking exhibition centers on the ancient town of Oplontis on the Neapolitan coast, a site that was buried and preserved when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE. The exhibition focuses on two adjacent, spectacular Roman archaeological sites—one an enormous luxury villa (“Villa A”) that once sprawled along the coast of the Bay of Naples, the other a nearby commercial-residential complex (“Villa B”), where products from the region were exported. 

Corinthian Capitals, Mid-first century CE, Luna Marble from Villa A, portico 60.

Ongoing excavations of the villas have revealed a wealth of art, including sculpture that adorned the gardens along with ordinary utilitarian objects that together demonstrate the disparities of wealth, social class, and consumption in Roman life. 

This is the first major exhibition to address this important site, less well known than the more famous sites of nearby Pompeii and Herculaneum, which were also victims of the Vesuvian eruption. SCMA is one of three national venues for the exhibition, and the only east coast venue.  

This exhibition is organized and circulated by The University of Michigan Kelsey Museum of Archaeology in cooperation with the Ministero dei Beni delle Attività Culturali e del Turismo and the Soprintendenza Speciale per i Beni Archeologici di Pompei, Ercolano e Stabia.

Thymiaterion, First Century CE; Pottery. From Villa A, room 48

Bust of a Goddess, Hellenistic period, 4th–2nd Century BCE. Terracotta. Found in Villa A, room 55

Roman, n.d., Handle of silver plate, w. 15 cm; h. 6.5 cm

Strongbox, 3rd–1st century BCE. From Oplontis B, northeast area of peristyle courtyard (cat. 143)

Roman, Pair of gold cluster earrings (skeleton 7), n.d., 3.1-2.9 cm x 2.5-2.2 cm

Portrait of a Boy, Claudian period, 41–54 CE. White marble.

Venus (Aphrodite), First century BCE. White marble. From Villa A, room 35 (cat. 28)

Glass Jug with RidgedHandle, First century AD. Blue-green glass. From Oplontis B, room 15 (cat. 160)

Bronze Oil Lamp with Horse Head Handle Ornament, AD 75–79. Bronze. From Oplontis B, room 10 (cat. 157)

Fragments with Palmettes with Acanthus Tendrils, n.d. From Villa A, original room unknown (cat. 112)

Dressel 2-4 Amphora, Second half of first century BCE–79 CE. Pottery. From Oplontis B, room 1 (cat. 150)

Silver Spoon (two views), n.d. Silver. L. 13.7 cm

Casssettino Hoard; M. Antonius, legionary coin, n.d

Thorax Hoard; Aureus; obverse Galba/reverse Virtus, n.d

Anetfix in the Form of a Goddess's Headin the Form of a Goddess's Head, n.d. Terracotta, approx. h. 26 cm; w. 12.5 cm; d. 18.75 cm

Fourth Style Ceiling Fragment with Griffin, n.d. From Villa A, original room unknown

Mortar, n.d, Dark gray, marble-like stone. h. 5.8 cm (with pestle inside, 8.5 cm); w. 26.5 cm (in direction of spout); d. 24 cm

Fourth Style (Non-joining) Fragments, n.d. Blue on white ground. Max. dimensoins of each H. 8 cm; W. 5 cm, .d

Lamp (Loeschcke type III), n.d. Terracotta. H. 19 cm; W. 35.5 cm; D. 22 cm

Pearl Ring, n.d. Ring: Diam. 2.1 cm; pearl: Diam. 0.6 cm 

Willem De Kooning, Untitled, ca. 1939. Oil on paper mounted on canvas, 95.8 x 73.7 cm. Private collection © The Willem de Kooning Foundation, New York /VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016

BILBAO.- The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents Abstract Expressionism , an ambitious selection of works by the artists who spearheaded a major shift and new apogee in painting in New York which began in the 1940’s. Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, David Smith, and Clyfford Still are just some of the artists in the show, which brings together more than 130 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photographs from public and private collections all over the world. This exhibition sheds new light on Abstract Expressionism, a diverse, complex, and multifaceted phenomenon which is often erroneously viewed as a unified whole. 

Back in the years of free jazz and the poetry of the Beat generation, with the Second World War as the backdrop, a group of artists broke with the established conventions and ushered in a movement which was born of a shared artistic and life experience, even though they each had their own style. Unlike the Cubism and Surrealism which predated it, Abstract Expressionism refuses to be bound by any formula and is instead a celebration of individual diversity and freedom of expression. 

Characteristics of this movement include works on a colossal scale which are sometimes intense, spontaneous, and extraordinarily expressive, while other times they are more contemplative through the use of vast color fields. These creations redefined the nature of painting and aspired not only to be admired from afar but also to be enjoyed in two-way encounters between the artist and the viewer. Just as the artists express their emotions and convey the sense that these emotions are brought into the work, the viewer’s perception is the last step in this interaction. Thus, “Abstract painting is abstract. If confronts you,” as Jackson Pollock stated in 1950. Furthermore, the intensity of this encounter could be further accentuated by the way the works are displayed, as exemplified in the Rothko Chapel in Houston. 

Jackson Pollock, Male and Female, 1942–43. Oil on canvas, 186.1 x 124.3 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gift of Mr and Mrs H. Gates Lloyd, 1974. Photo: Philadelphia Museum of Art © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016 

Early works 
The early years of Abstract Expressionism reflect the ill-fated era in which the movement materialized, a time that was marred by two World Wars and the Great Depression. This can be seen in the sinister skeletons of Jackson Pollock’s series Untitled Panels A – D (1934–38), the architecture depicted by Mark Rothko in Interior (1936), and the Philip Guston work The Porch (1946–47), where the human figure seems to be threatened and takes on a macabre tone clearly influenced by the Holocaust. In the 1940’s, these connotations evolved towards a more universal language which included the creation of myths such as Idolatress I (1944) by Hans Hofmann (1942–43), archetypes such as Pollock’s totemic Male and Female , and primitivistic forms such as the savage biomorphs of Richard Pousette -Dart’s Undulation (ca. 1941–42). Willem de Kooning conferred a subjective sensitivity on abstract motifs in Untitled (1939–40), while in their collaborative piece Untitled (1940–41), William Baziotes, Gerome Kamrowski, and Pollock showcase another popular trend of allowing the paint to flow almost at whim. 

Conrad Marca-Relli, East Wall (LL-10-59), 1959. Collage and mixed media on canvas, 197.5 x 305 cm. Private collection, Parma. Courtesy Archivio Marca-Relli © Archivio Marca-Relli, Parma. Photo: Roberto Ricci 

Arshile Gorky 
Arshile Gorky’s (Armenia, 1904 –Connecticut, 1948) importance stemmed from his in-depth knowledge of art history, which he conveyed to his protégé De Kooning, coupled with his ability to fuse trends like Cubism and Surrealism to create a new syntax. This hybrid language appeared early on in Untitled (Nighttime, Enigma and Nostalgia) (ca. 1931–32), which evokes the proto-Surrealist Giorgio de Chirico. 

Gorky later revealed his talent as a master of color and line, and between 1944 and 1945 he reached his peak with paintings like Water of the Flowery Mill (1944) and The Unattainable (1945). Tragic events, like the fire in his studio and a traffic accident which almost cost him his life, made Gorky’s art take on a cold, elegiac tone, as seen in The Limit and The Orators , both from 1947, until his tragic death in 1948. 

Willem de Kooning 
De Kooning (Rotterdam, 1904 - New York, 1997) was the master of the gesture as a reflection ofraw emotion. His paintings swayed between abstraction and figuration, creating explosive, rebellious effects. After an early obsession with female eroticism, he went on to explore another dimension. His 1949 work Zot (which means “demented” in Dutch) conceals a condensed dramatic quality in which vestiges of the figure and other details clash with and blur into each other. 

From the same period, Abstraction (1949–50) revealed the potent religious symbolism that permeated the artist’s iconography, which spans from lust and perdition to salvation, making it a modern take on the reflections on the human condition rendered by the masters of classical painting. 

Representations of females were a constant feature in de Kooning’s oeuvre, although by the 1960’s they took a turn towards the grotesque, while he simultaneously made these women more accessible, such as in Woman as Landscape (1965–66). De Kooning contrasted the febrile universe of female sexuality with the chaos of the modern city in what the artist called feelings of “leaving the city or returning to it.” Thus, in Villa Borghese (1960) and Untitled (1961), the strips of pastel hues exude an air of freedom, in line with the enjoyment and serenity that the artist got from nature. And in the 1970’s, his style became more fluid and contemplative, as can be seen in the work ...Whose Name Was Written in Water (1975), in which the use of paint diluted with oil yielded longer and more gestural brushstrokes. 

Willem De Kooning, Untitled (Woman in Forest), ca. 1963–64. Oil on paper, mounted on Masonite, 73.7 x 86.4 cm. Private collection © The Willem de Kooning Foundation, New York /VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016

Franz Kline 
By the time he held his first solo show in 1950, Franz Kline (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 1910 – New York, 1962) revealed a mature oeuvre in which he explored black and white in contradictory configurations and violent imbalances, creating images that were at once architectural and poetic. The titles of Franz Kline’s works summon a universe made up of people and spaces from the industrial and mining region of Pennsylvania, where he was born, along with romantic reminiscences of Europe, such as Requiem (1958), in which Kline depicts an ominous world. Even though his monochromatic brushstrokes look spontaneous, his technique was among the most deliberate of all the Abstract Expressionists. Kline, who often created his paintings based on drawings, worked at night and used diluted commercial paints and thick brushes, as in Untitled from 1952, one of his most celebrated works. Shortly before his premature death, he managed to achieve extraordinary horizontal dynamism and once again introduced an almost fluorescent glow which stressed the bravado of his large-scale dramas, as seen in Andrus , named after the doctor who treated his heart disease. 

Mark Rothko 
The paintings that Mark Rothko (Daugavpils, Russia [now Latvia], 1903–New York, 1970) made in the 1950’s and 1960’s perfectly capture his zeal for creating abstract personifications of powerful human feelings such as tragedy, ecstasy, and fatality, as the artist himself explained. Instantly recognizable, Rothko’s floating rectangles have inspired countless interpretations, such as that they replace the human presence, that they abstractly and sublimely symbolize the landscape, and that they express moods. 

By eliminating any trace of narrative from his compositions, which are simple in appearance, he clears the path to a more direct emotional response to the image. Rothko called his paintings “façades,” a term that refers to both the frontality with which the works confront the viewer and their enigmatic hypnotism, given that by definition façades both reveal and conceal at the same time. The auras which sometimes surround the color fields give them a luminous halo and a strange mix of stillness and drama, such as in the large “wall of light,” Untitled , from 1952-53, which is part of the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Collection. 

Even though Rothko created more colorful or darker canvases at different stages in his life, after 1957 his works primarily veered toward darkness. The paintings displayed here span from his early exploration of light to his later relationship with shadows.  

Mark Rothko, Yellow Band, 1956. Oil on canvas, 218.8 x 201.9 cm. Sheldon Museum of Art, University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Sheldon Art Association, Thomas C. Woods Memorial, N-130.1961 © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko/VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016. Photo: © Sheldon Museum of Art

Jackson Pollock 
Jackson Pollock (Cody, Wyoming, 1912–Springs, New York, 1956) is regarded as the leading practitioner of Abstract Expressionism. With the giant mural that he painted for the home of the collector and patron Peggy Guggenheim in 1943, he reached a milestone in the history of early Abstract Expressionism, paving the way for both Rothko and Gorky to produce their largest paintings the following year. His 
Mural (1943), which combines bold paint application with a colossal size, gave Pollock the confidence to explore the painting process on the huge surfaces in Portrait of HM (1945) and Night Mist (1945), until he reached his characteristic style in 1947–1950. 

With the untreated canvas spread over the ground, Pollock poured and splattered his pigments with surprising control, creating labyrinths that followed the rhythm of his body and suggested both a kind of mental script and muscular release. Pollock described these extraordinary tracings as “energy and motion made visible, memories arrested in space.” Perhaps the most striking feature is how Pollock’s extraordinarily personal style was anything but a constraint and instead managed to generate such a wide range of effects. 

Traumatized by Pollock’s death in the summer of 1956 it took his wife Lee Krasner until 1960 to wrestle with his formidable ghost. The outcome was the bounding rhythms and arcing vectors of The Eye Is the First Circle . As such, this monumental canvas ranks as perhaps the most memorable single tribute to Pollock’s seismic achievement. A similar sense of inward immensity marks the almost micrographic fields that Krasner and the Ukrainian-American artist Janet Sobel crafted in the late 1940s. In turn, Sobel’s fusion of the micro- and macrocosmic most likely impressed Pollock and influenced his subsequent adoption of the “all-over” painting style. Similarly Robert Motherwell, whose more than 200 Elegies to the Spanish Republic (1965–75) are contemplative; the version in this gallery in particular was inspired by Pollock’s Mural , doubling as a memorial to that artist. Smith’s sculpture Tanktotem III (1953) evokes a prancing bestial presence spun out of Mural into three dimensions.

Jackson Pollock, Mural, 1943. Oil and casein on canvas, 243.2 x 603.2 cm, The University of Iowa Museum of Art. Gift of Peggy Guggenheim, 1959.6 © The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016

Barnett Newman and Ad Reinhardt 
Two artists with such different backgrounds and temperaments like Barnet Newman (New York, 1905 – New York, 1970) and Ad Reinhardt (Buffalo, New York, 1913 – New York, 1967) took color to the limit, and their decorative and sensorial associations tended towards the absolute. By the late 1940’s, Newman had established his two main painting motifs: thin vertical lines, also known as zips, which were used to create focal points, and the range of bright colors that these lines organized. In Galaxy (1949), Newman suggests an embryonic cosmos, while in Eve (1950) and Adam (1951–52) , the lines combined with earthy browns and reds take on an organic aura, as if the couple were announcing an act of creation. In Ulysses (1952) and Profile of Light (1967), blue evokes the immensity of the ocean in the former and a transcendental sublimity in the latter. 

Reinhardt, in turn, takes the rectangle as the basic element of painting in order to condense the chroma, or the apparent saturation of the colors, to the utmost. The reds and blues he created in the 1950’s led to a darkness that hinted at the idea of emptiness and the irrevocable. After 1953, Reinhardt only made “black” paintings, sensing that he had managed to strip art down to its purest essence. Yet despite their monochromatic appearance, these works are actually made up of grids painted in saturated tones of red, blue, and green, in a hypnotic interaction that tests the limits of vision.

Barnett Newman, Galaxy, 1949. Oil on canvas, 60.1 x 50.8 cm, Collection of Lynn and Allen Turner © The Barnett Newman Foundation, New York/ VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016

Blurred Epicenter 
Even though Abstract Expressionism has its roots in New York, its sphere of influence spread to artists on the U.S. West coast as well, such as Sam Francis (San Mateo, California, 1923–Santa Monica, California, 1994). 

During the 1950s, Francis’s work shifted from almost monochromatic compositions dense with corpuscular motifs to others glowing with rich hues and, finally, an uplifted openness evoking rarefied, empyrean voids. Outpacing neat categories that sometimes pigeonhole the Abstract Expressionists into “colour-field” artists versus “gesturalists”, Guston, Joan Mitchell and the young Helen Frankenthaler evolved their own respective visual palimpsests by the second half of the 1950s. 

Mitchell’s Salut Tom is an apotheosis wherein sunlight and shade contend. The quadriptych format probably recalls Monet’s enveloping Nymphéas’ as it aggrandizes the artist’s faith in the “landscape I carry around inside me”. Again, though, the sentiment is valedictory: the title commemorates the critic Thomas B. Hess, who championed Abstract Expressionism. Whether in Guston’s lush yet fragile impasto, Mitchell’s fleet, tactile brushwork or Frankenthaler’s lyrical oil washes that sketch myths and memories as they permeate the canvas, each artist created their own unique fusion of colour and gesture. 

Philip Guston, The Porch, 1946–47. Oil on canvas, 147.6 x 91.4 cm. Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois on behalf of the Krannert Art Museum, Champaign. University of Illinois purchase, 1948-10-1 © The Estate of Philip Guston/Cortesía Hauser & Wirth

Helen Frankenthaler, Europa, 1957. Oil on canvas, 177.8 x 138.4 cm, Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, New York © Helen Frankenthaler / VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016. Photo: Robert McKeever

More A “Phenomenon” Than A “Movement” 
In its late phase, the Abstract Expressionists went in different directions, faithful to their individualism. Some artists embraced darkness, like Motherwell in the work In Plato’s Cave No. 1 (1972). Tworkov’s gravely meditative Idling II (1970) makes a tacit yet eloquent complement to his friend Rothko’s stern visual endgame, the latter works sealed by their distancing white borders. Mark Tobey’s works are imbued with spirituality. In Parnassus (1963), dynamic black lines show the influence of Zen calligraphy on Tobey, whose “white writing” ended up becoming his hallmark. Other artists explored more luminous terrains, such as William Baziotes and his watery world, in which phantasms sporting tentacles roam through phosphorescent depths. Their mythic cast – redolent with deep time and primitivism – recalls Abstract Expressionism’s early interests, now writ large, while the opalescent textures intimate a universe glimpsed distantly in the mind’s eye. Guston, in turn, went back to his origins by painting figurative images in the late 1950’s, which earned him fierce criticism that led him to retire from the art world. 

Guston’s figuration, which is present in his early work, is revisited here in Low Tide (1976), where the waters of abstraction ebb to reveal unsettling fragments. Simultaneously hobnail heels and parodies of the letter “omega” – the last in the Greek alphabet – Guston’s quiet apocalypse also doubles as timely pictorial metaphor. Ominous orbs rise / set on the ruddy Abstract Expressionist horizon. 

Robert Motherwell, Wall Painting No. III, 1953. Oil on canvas, 137.1 x 184.5 cm. Private collection. Courtesy Hauser & Wirth © Dedalus Foundation, Inc. /VAGA, NY/VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016

Photography 
The critic Harold Rosenberg’s definition of Abstract Expressionism as “action painting” in 1952 excluded photography. However, Aaron Siskind had close ties to the Abstract Expressionist painters, as did Minor White, who taught alongside Clyfford Still for many years. The bold marks, graffiti, and textures captured by Siskind and other photographers like Frederick Sommer share the same expressive concern with violence, darkness, and immediacy that we find in the Abstract Expressionists’ paintings. Harry Callahan, Herbert Matter (a close friend of Pollock), the prolific Albanian-born ‘Life’ photographer Gjon Mili, and Barbara Morgan all conjured up abstract ideograms and swift motion that match the painters’ goals. The most influential photographic images include the ones by Hans Namuth portraying Pollock in action, which were used to expand the limited, hierarchical definition of Abstract Expressionism. 

Clyfford Still 
Clyfford Still (Grandin, North Dakota, 1904–Baltimore, Maryland, 1980) was always a diehard outsider. He remained close to the immensity of the western U.S. and only lived in New York for 12 of his 75 years. This geographic distance from the center of art tinged his originality. He was gifted at drawing, had extensive knowledge of art history, and was a fan of some of the great masters. This paradoxically kindled Still’s radicalism, as heralded in PH - 235 (1944), one of the early milestones in Abstract Expressionism. Beginning in dispersed landscapes, verticality became the main theme in his oeuvre through either extremely thin “lifelines” or imposing monoliths. Still associated verticality with the uprightness of the erect being and spiritual transcendence, whose opposite was the yawning abyss. Thus, his work wages a battle between luminosity and darkness, somehow merging life and death. For the first time, the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, which holds 95% of the artist’s work, will loan nine major paintings to the exhibition, establishing the artist at the very forefront of Abstract Expressionism. 

Clyfford Still, PH-950, 1950. Oil on canvas, 233.7 x 177.8 cm. Courtesy Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, Colorado © City and County of Denver, VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016

David Smith (in several galleries) 
In 1934, David Smith (Decatur, Indiana, 1906 - Vermont, 1965) began to weld metal sculptures using an oxyacetylene torch; these were probably the first welded-metal sculptures made in the United Estates. He soon discovered Terminal Iron Works, a commercial welding operation on the Brooklyn Waterfront. Smith is the leading sculptor from the first generation of Abstract Expressionists, and his ideas and visual universe echo the concerns of the movement as a whole. The sculptures scattered about different galleries represent the oeuvre Smith produced from the late 1940’s until his premature death in 1965, and they evince the constant interaction between the sculptor and the painters. Some of his works explore upright forms that abstractly evoke the human presence, while others are more austere, sometimes mechanistic and other times architectural, such as the dazzling stainless steel surfaces of Cubi XXVII (1965)

David Smith, StarCage, 1950. Painted and brushed steel, 114 x 130.2 x 65.4 cm. Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. The John Rood Sculpture Collection © The Estate of David Smith, VAGA, New York / VEGAP, Bilbao, 2016

Master of the Saint Lucy Legend, Netherlandish, Mary, Queen of Heaven, ca. 1485/1500. Oil on panel, 79 5/16 × 64 1/2 in, 201.5 × 163.8 cm. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

SARASOTA, FLA.- The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art presents A Feast for the Senses: Art and Experience in Medieval Europe, a major international loan exhibition that brings together more than 100 works including stained glass, precious metals, ivories, tapestries, paintings, prints and illuminated manuscripts. The show has been organized by The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, in partnership with The Ringling with objects coming from 25 prestigious public institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library and Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. 

“We are thrilled to be partnering with The Walters Art Museum to bring this extraordinary group of objects to our visitors in Sarasota,” remarked Steven High, executive director, The Ringling. “These works will not only allow guests to engage with art in new ways but give them the opportunity to view pieces from world-renowned collections.” 

MirrorCase with the Attack on the Castle of Love, France, 1320–40. Ivory.

The exhibition focuses on the late medieval and early Renaissance period in Europe (roughly 1300-1500), a time in which societal changes prompted a new interest in human experience, the enjoyment of nature and the pursuit of pleasure. As a result, the art of this period functioned in a rich sensory world that was integral to its appreciation. These works were not only seen, but also touched, smelled and heard. The exhibition will bring together sacred and secular art to reveal the role of the senses in courtly ritual and religious practice. 

A Feast for the Senses seeks to recover the traces of sounds, smell, taste and touch inherent in the materiality of these late medieval objects and give them a voice, bringing them to life for the modern viewer. The oft-held notion of the Middle Ages as a period of sensory deprivation is disproven through the many objects on view that encourage sensory engagement. As visitors move through the exhibition space they will encounter interactive displays including Audio Spotlights, Scent Pop stations, and touchable replicas, all designed to encourage an appreciation of how art was designed to stimulate the senses of the medieval viewer.  

“These are objects that were meant to be touched and used, not simply looked at. A Feast for the Senses will evoke the experiences people in this period had with them, allowing visitors to gain a deeper understanding of this time in history” stated Virginia Brilliant, Ulla R. Searing curator of collections at The Ringling. 

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue with new research that significantly contributes to the emerging field of sensory perception within art history. The essays, by leading scholars including exhibition curator Martina Bagnoli and Virginia Brilliant, explore the themes of the exhibition through investigations into religious practices and rituals, aristocratic feasts and celebrations, music and literature and the art of courtship, love and marriage.

Aquamanile in the Form of Aristotle and Phyllis, late 14th or early 15th century, bronze; quaternary copper alloy. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection, 197.

Aquamanile in the Form of a Centaur. Bronze, Germany 1450-1500, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore.

Trumpeting Angel, 14th century, French. Museum of Fine Arts , Boston, William Francis Warden Fund.

Narcissus, French, Paris, About 1500. Wool and silk tapestry, 282 x 311 cm (111 x 122 7/16 in.). Museum of Fine Arts , Boston, Charles Potter Kling Fund.

Window Panel with Saint Vincent on the Rack, 1245-1247, paint on stained glass. Acquired by Henry Walters, 1918.

Santa Francesca Romana Holding the Christ Child, Antonio del Massaro da Viterbo, Italy, ca. 1445.

Harley Roll T11, The Wounds of Christ, England, 15th century © The British Library Board

Egerton MS 1069, The Walled Garden, c. 1400 © The British Library Board

Add MS 18196, f. 1r, Agnes Enthroned and Scenes from Her Legend © The British Library Board

ZaoWou-Ki, Décembre 89–Février 90—Quadriptyque (December 89–February 90—Quadriptych), 1989–90. Oil on canvas. Each canvas: 63 3/4 x 39 3/8 in. (162 x 100 cm); overall: 63 3/4 x 157 1/2 in. (162 x 400 cm). Private collections, Taiwan.© Zao Wou-Ki/ProLitteris, Zurich. Photography by Jean-Louis Losi

WATERVILLE, ME.-  No Limits: Zao Wou-Ki is the first retrospective of the work of Zao Wou-Ki (1920–2013) in the United States, and the first museum exhibition of his work in the U.S. in nearly a half-century. Consisting of oil paintings and works on paper from throughout Zao’s long career, the works in this exhibition provide a dazzling introduction to the contributions of this important Chinese-French artist. Considered one of the first superstar artists of the Chinese diaspora, Zao immigrated to Paris in 1948 and quickly established himself among post-war art circles there. Zao’s art-historical significance lies in his singular adaption of the visual poetry of Chinese art within twentieth-century oil-painting idioms. In his hands, abstraction embraced both European modernism and Chinese metaphysical principles. No Limits: Zao Wou-Ki offers stunning visual evidence of Zao’s pioneering internationalist aesthetic, and marks him as a key figure in twentieth-century transculturalism. 

Zao Wou-Ki, Rouge, bleu, noir (Red, blue, black), 1957. Oil on canvas, 29 1/2 x 32 in. (74.9 x 81.2 cm). Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum. Gift of Benjamin and Lilian Hertzberg, 2007.29.© Zao Wou-Ki/ProLitteris, Zurich.

Zao Wou-Ki, 13.01.76, 1976. Oil on canvas, 59 x 63 3/4 in. (150 x 162 cm). Private Collection, Taiwan. © Zao Wou-Ki/ProLitteris, Zurich.